In the video above, the plight of a 10-day-old Syrian refugee in Lebanon illustrates the challenges facing many who have been displaced by Syria’s civil war. World leaders are gathering in London this week to try and find solutions for Syria’s refugee crisis. (video: Rome Reports)

World leaders aim to raise billions for Syrian refugees(The Guardian) World leaders are gathering in London for a conference aimed at raising $9bn for Syrian refugees and preventing the creation of a permanent underclass of uneducated, restless and jobless Syrians living in countries’ bordering their homeland. Organizers want the aid to be diverted from food handouts towards work and education opportunities for Syrians in Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan...

Report: More than 10,000 refugee, migrant children have disappeared in Europe(Al Jazeera) More than 10,000 unaccompanied refugee and migrant children have disappeared in Europe, the EU police agency Europol said on Sunday, fearing many have been whisked into sex trafficking rings or the slave trade. Europol’s press office confirmed to Al Jazeera the figures published in British newspaper The Observer. The number relates to the past 18-24 months...

Pope greets UN peacekeepers at audience(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Wednesday met with a group of soldiers serving as United Nations peacekeepers from Paraguay and Argentina. The group was attending the weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square...

UNESCO recognizes baptism site of Jesus as World Heritage Site(Fides) The site of Jesus’ baptism on the Jordan River has been officially declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, during a ceremony held in Paris on the evening of Tuesday 2 February. The ceremony was also attended by a delegation from the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, including the Jordanian Minister for Tourism Nayef H Al-Fayez and Archbishop Maroun Lahham, Patriarchal Vicar for Jordan of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem...

Chaldean monastery in Tehran reopens(Fides) On the eve of the meeting in the Vatican between Iranian President Hassan Rohani and Pope Francis, it was possible to reopen the Chaldean monastery of the Congregation of the Daughters of Mary in Tehran. This was reported by official sources of the Chaldean Patriarchate, recalling that the monastery had been closed since 2013...

Why the Middle East’s largest Christian community is fleeing Egypt(International Business Times) Egyptian churches across New York and New Jersey have seen their communities swell in recent years as Egypt has faced political turmoil, a slumping economy and a growing militant insurgency. The exodus has intensified fears for the future for Christianity in the Middle East, as some now worry for the fate of Egypt’s Christians, one of the world’s oldest Christian communities...

Ukraine’s economy minister quits(Bloomberg) Ukraine’s government, splintering over issues from the war in the nation’s east to faltering anti-corruption efforts, suffered a new setback as its reform-minded economy minister stepped down. Aivaras Abromavicius, 40, a Lithuanian-born former fund manager, said Wednesday that he wouldn’t be a “puppet” for officials he accuses of blocking overhauls of the ex-Soviet republic’s economy and institutions...

It was the most compelling quote I’d ever had in a long career in Catholic journalism. Those words, spoken in the wake of a deadly attack on a Catholic cathedral in Baghdad in late 2010, set me on a path that still unwinds before me.

When CNEWA asked if I would write about the Chaldean Church in the western U.S., I knew I would finally get to see the eparchy’s headquarters located in El Cajon, California, a five-hour drive from where I live in Arizona.

What I saw there in the course of writing the article for ONE was deeply inspiring. Two young men, eager to serve the church, stood before a packed cathedral and promised to spend their lives as priests.

The church was jammed with the faithful, and clergy watched from around the altar. Among them were two young priests ordained last spring as well as Chorbishop Monsignor Felix Shabi, better known around the eparchy simply as Father Felix. A canon lawyer, he speaks five languages and is devoted to serving his people.

Father Felix leads the Chaldean Catholic vicariate in Arizona and it is he who spoke those words of martyrdom to me five years ago, explaining that the Chaldean church has endured nearly 2,000 years of persecution. His own cousin, Father Ragheed Ganni, was martyred for the faith in Mosul in 2007.

As he told me of the plight of his people on that fateful day in 2010, the aroma of Chaldean cuisine filled the air. No one had ever invited me to stay for lunch after an interview! Food, I now realize, is integral to the Chaldean identity. To meet and not break bread is anathema.

Standing inside the Good Old Days Spices shop on Main Street in El Cajon, it was easy to see the blending of faith, family and food that characterize the Chaldean culture. Nancy Delly runs the store along with her husband, Wisam. The family has been in business 30 years. Behind the counter are large statues of the Virgin Mary as well as various saints, along with strings of rosary beads. There’s also a giant photo of her cousin, the late Patriarch Mar Emanuel III Delly, just over the display of Middle Eastern teas, kabob sticks and cans of fava beans.

As Nancy rings up customers’ purchases, she tells them, “Thank you. God will bless you.” But does she miss the old country?

“My life here is quiet and good and I like it. If somebody don’t like America, I say, ‘Go back. I buy your ticket.” Life here is good. This is my home.”

It’s all about family here. I asked Raad Delly, president of the parish council at Mar Abraham Chaldean Church in Arizona, about the close-knit community. It seems to me that everyone is related. How many cousins does he have in the U.S. anyway?

“Probably 200,” he laughed. “When you introduce yourself, they say, ‘My mom’s mother was a Delly’ and so on. Somehow, some way, we are all related to each other.”

In the streets and shops and restaurants as well as the church, it’s not uncommon to see older women, dressed in their native attire of long, simple dresses, their heads covered in a close-fitting cap. Many of these elderly Chaldean immigrants have spent a lifetime in villages where they walked to church every day and visited with friends, so life in a new land can seem lonely. In El Cajon, they attend early morning Mass, then spend several hours at local senior adult day care centers.

It takes a while for the community to accept a journalist who is clearly not one of their own. I found that greeting them with the traditional “Shlama,” (“Peace”) and mentioning the name of Father Felix opened more than a few doors.

One woman didn’t want to share her name with me or be photographed, but after I spent two hours sitting with her and four generations of her family, the evening ended with hugs and kisses all around. Her son — who was only an infant in her arms when his father was killed — will be a student in my First Communion class at Holy Cross Chaldean Mission in Gilbert, Arizona this year.

Angel Mikha, who teaches alongside me, is frequently mistaken for my sister. But it isn’t a mistake, not really. Over the last five years, we’ve become sisters in Christ as this community has adopted me, a Latin rite Catholic, strengthening my own faith with their heroic witness and hearty hospitality.

It’s a journey that’s still unfolding and one that inspires me daily to try to follow Christ more sincerely.

Sister Liza Mundamattom, of the Deen Bandhu Samaj Sisters, greets a member of the Chamba Mahara caste in Bastar, India. The Vatican’s Year of Consecrated Life officially came to a close today. To read about some of the sisters we have profiled since the year began, visit this link. And to support the formation of more sisters around the world, visit this giving page.(photo: Jose Jacob)

Pope Francis has called on consecrated men and women to make courageous and prophetic choices, to not be afraid of getting their hands dirty and of walking the geographical and existential peripheries of mankind today.

The Pope was speaking to consecrated men and women during Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica marking the end of the Year of Consecrated Life.

The Year, which was celebrated throughout the world, began on the First Sunday of Advent in November 2014 and came to a close on the World Day of Consecrated Life on 2 February, 2016.

The initiative, called for by Pope Francis, aimed to be an occasion of renewal for men and women in consecrated life, of thanksgiving among the faithful for the service of sisters, brothers, priests, and nuns, and an invitation to young Catholics to consider a religious vocation.

During his homily the Pope described the just ended Year of Consecrated Life as “a river” saying “it now flows into the sea of mercy, into the immense mystery of love that we are experiencing through the Extraordinary Jubilee.”

He concluded: “May the Lord Jesus, through the maternal intercession of Mary, grow within us, and each increase in each of us the desire of encounter, the custody of wonder and the joy of gratitude. Then others will be attracted by His light, and will be able to meet the Father’s mercy.”

In the video above, Jordan’s King Abdullah II describes the difficulties his country is facing dealing with the influx of refugees from Syria. (video: BBC)

Jordan’s king says citizens are “at a boiling point” over refugees(International Business Times) Jordan’s King Abdullah II has said that people in his country are at “boiling point” due to the influx of thousands of refugees from Syria, BBC reported Tuesday. Abdullah’s comments came on the heels of the U.N. refugee agency’s statement Sunday that about 20,000 Syrian refugees have been stranded on the war-torn country’s border with Jordan. Jordan has been accepting refugees from Palestine and Iraq for decades and now asylum-seekers from Syria make up nearly 20 percent of the country’s population, BBC reported. “For the first time we can’t do it any more,” Abdullah said...

Russia open to hard-liners attending Syria peace talks(AP) Russia said Tuesday it supports the inclusion of all opposition parties in Syrian peace talks, including representatives of two hard-line Islamic groups, as President Bashar Assad’s troops captured a village north of Syria’s largest city with the aid of Russian airstrikes. Syria’s official SANA news agency reported the capture of Hardatneen, north of Aleppo, as U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura kicked off what he called a second day of peace talks in Geneva by hosting a government delegation for the second time since Friday. He also planned a separate meeting with the main opposition group later in the day...

U.S. weighs options to speed Iraq’s fight to retake Mosul(Reuters) The United States is willing to deploy Apache attack helicopters and advisers to help Iraq retake the city of Mosul from Islamic State as it considers options to speed up the campaign against the militant group, a top U.S. general said on Monday...

Winter plunging Iraqis deeper in debt(Huffington Post) These days, 40 year-old Syrian father of three, Faruq Mohammed Hamo, tells me there are local shops where he dare not go and show his face. Faruq is deep in debt and is ashamed to go to stores where he can’t pay back the food items he’s bought on credit. His family fled conflict in the Kobane, Syria, in September 2014. They now live in Qaladze, north of Sulaymaniyah in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, just a few kilometres from the border with Iran. They fled with nothing and have been helped by neighbours as well as getting help from UNHCR. But, Faruq says, he has been unable to find regular work and things are going from bad to worse...

Pope: Consecrated life must be close to the people(VIS) Pope Francis spoke to participants in the Jubilee of Consecrated Life yesterday, noting: “Men and women are consecrated, not to distance themselves from people and to live in comfort; no, to become closer to and to understand the life of Christians and non-Christians, their suffering, their problems, the many things that can be understood only if a consecrated man or woman is close to them. ... Consecrated life is not a status that allows us to watch others from a distance...”

The image above shows a detail of the baptistery painting from Deir ez-Zor, Syria,that may portray the Virgin Mary.(photo: Tony De Camillo/Yale University Art Gallery/The New York Times)

Sunday, Fordham theology professor Michael Peppard published a fascinating essay in The New York Times, taking a closer look at an image from Syria that he believes may have rich historical meaning:

At the Yale University Art Gallery hang wall paintings from one of the world’s oldest churches. Buried by the middle of the third century, this house-church from eastern Syria had images of Jesus, Peter and David. The gallery showcases a well-preserved procession of veiled women that once surrounded its baptistery, a room for Christian initiation.

Off to the side, seldom noticed among the likes of Jesus and Peter, stands a different wall fragment, faded but still discernible: a woman bent over a well. Holding the rope of her vessel, she looks out at the viewer or perhaps over her shoulder, seemingly startled in the act of drawing water.

Who is she? The museum’s identification is certainly plausible: “The painting most likely depicts a scene from the encounter between Christ (not shown) and a woman from Samaria,” as recorded in the Gospel of John. But historians also know that the Samaritan Woman, a repentant sinner who conversed at length with Jesus, was usually depicted in dialogue with him. This woman appears to be alone.

Is it possible that a painting from a building excavated in 1932 and publicized around the world has not been correctly identified?

He makes a compelling argument that the figure is, in fact, the Virgin Mary:

...While the Samaritan Woman at the Well was a respected biblical figure for early Christians, there was actually a more prominent “woman at the well” in Syria: the Virgin Mary during the Annunciation, when an angelic visitor informed her of her miraculous pregnancy. Where does this episode take place? The setting of the canonical account, in the Gospel of Luke, is not specified. But the second-century biography of Mary’s early life, usually called the Protevangelium of James, describes how one day, during a break from her work, “she took the pitcher and went forth to draw water, and behold, a voice said: ‘Hail, you are highly favored, the Lord is with you, blessed are you among women.’ And she looked around on the right and on the left to see from where this voice could have come.” During this first encounter, at a well or spring, the angel was heard but not seen. Mary appeared to be alone.

Archival photographs and drawings made by the archaeologists on site show that the supposed absence behind the female figure is not totally silent — it speaks a couple of lines. That is to say, a field sketch of the wall done “to show additional details” depicts two painted lines touching the woman’s back, along with a kind of starburst on the front of her torso, features described as “unexplained” in the archaeological report. But with the new interpretation of the figure, in connection with the Eastern iconography that came later, the lines invite a rather evident meaning. They appear to represent a motion toward the woman’s body and a spark of activity within it, as if something invisible were approaching and entering her — an incarnation.

If correct, this woman at a well is the oldest securely datable image of the Virgin Mary.

The pages shown above depict ancient biblical manuscripts being preserved by the Museum of the Bible. The Rev. Elias Mallon of CNEWA says misinterpretation of Scripture gives rise to religious fundamentalism in all faiths. (photo: CNS)

CNEWA’s external affairs officer, the Rev. Elias Mallon, was interviewed recently by Michael Swan of the Catholic Register, and he offered some insight into what gives rise to religious fundamentalism:

Most people have never heard a homily preached on Deuteronomy 20:10-18. It’s kind of difficult to apply these God-given rules of war to daily life in the 21st century.

The part about enslaving the women and killing all the men and boys if the village resists attack has little application when asking a boss for a raise or negotiating a mortgage renewal.

The Bible was written in a very different place at a very different time by people whose self-understanding and world view was formed by forces people today might understand intellectually but struggle to feel deep inside.

Father Elias Mallon, a member of the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement, said it need not be so: It is possible to find some deeper Christian meaning in difficult texts from the Bible. But it requires study and an understanding of the history embedded in biblical literature, which was collected over a 1,000-year span and finally accepted as part of the Bible more than 17 centuries ago.

Father Mallon was recently in Toronto for a three-way discussion among Catholics, Muslims and Jews about reading and interpreting difficult texts. The event was hosted by the Archdiocese of Toronto.

The New York priest has spent a lifetime reading, translating and understanding the ancient languages which, once mastered, gave him insights into the Bible and the monotheistic cultures of the three Abrahamic religions. He’s been a contributor to Muslim-Christian dialogue since 1985, and he is the author of “Islam: What Catholics Need to Know.” He also serves as external affairs officer of Catholic Near East Welfare Association.

Learning to interpret tricky, terrible and difficult texts in sacred Scriptures is not some obscure, academic challenge. When preachers and ordinary believers misinterpret their sacred texts, the result is almost always fundamentalism, Father Mallon said.

“Fundamentalism is probably, and I mean this sarcastically, the ecumenical reality,” he said. “We all have it. It’s a problem for all of us — Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists. Right down the line, that’s the problem.”

Fundamentalism is usually the result of reading an ancient, sacred text as if it were a newspaper or a modern textbook — reading the words without any awareness of the culture or the historical circumstances in which they were first spoken, he said.

“All of our texts are ancient. All of our texts come out of a context,” Father Mallon said. “It’s a world that wasn’t pluralistic. It was more violent.”

Villagers climb on top of a crowded Jeep after their weekly shopping in an Indian village in the so-called “Red Valley.” To learn how a group of devoted sisters is helping the poor in this conflict-stricken corner of the country, read Serving in the Red in the Summer 2015 edition of ONE.(photo: Jose Jacob)

In this picture from 10 January, Archbishop Stephen Brislin of Cape Town, South Africa, center, listens to an Israeli border policeman after he stopped a delegation of bishops near the Palestinian land in the Cremisan Valley in Beit Jala, West Bank. An Israeli court has rejected appeals to stop construction of the wall dividing the Cremisan Valley. (photo: CNS/Debbie Hill)

Israeli court rejects appeals to stop Cremisan wall(Fides) The Israeli High Court rejected the appeals that had been presented to counter the resumption of the construction of the “wall of division” in the Cremisan Valley. The appeals were presented by the Salesian Sisters of the Convent located in the area affected by the works, by the municipality of Beit Jala and by the Palestinian owners of agricultural land expropriated to build the barrier...

Jordan seeks international aid to help with Syrian refugees(Financial Times) Jordan is prepared to allow tens of thousands of Syrians to work in the kingdom, the country’s prime minister said, if the international community agrees to extend billions of dollars worth of aid for its economy, which is buckling under the burden of hosting more than one million refugees...

Iraq faces calamity from dropping oil prices(The New York Times) Iraqis seeking to withdraw money from banks are told there is not enough cash. Hospitals in Baghdad are falling back to the deprivation of the 1990s sanctions era, resterilizing, over and over, needles and other medical products meant for one-time use. In the autonomous Kurdish region in the north, the economic crisis is even worse: government workers — and the pesh merga fighters who are battling the Islamic State — have not been paid in months. Already, there have been strikes and protests that have turned violent. These scenes present a portrait of a country in the midst of an expensive war against the Islamic State that is now facing economic calamity brought on by the collapse in the price of oil, which accounts for more than 90 percent of the Iraqi government’s revenue...

Coptic professer sentenced to three years in prison for insulting Islam(Fides) The court of Beni Mazar sentenced a Coptic teacher on charges of insulting Islam to three years in prison. The episode happened last spring, at a village school in Nasiriyya, near the town of Beni Mazar, in the Egyptian province of Minya. Four students of the school were arrested for having shown a video, filmed with a mobile phone, where they mimicked the scene of the slaughter of a faithful Muslim in an attitude of prayer, in imitation of the horrific executions committed by jihadists of the Islamic State...

Ukraine authorities demand French TV pull documentary on Maidan uprising(RT.com) Ukraine’s authorities have urged a French broadcaster to take a documentary titled “Masks of Revolution” off the air. They claim the movie misrepresents Maidan events, and have a list of their own suggestions for what needs to be shown. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry in their facebook statement went as far as to urge Canal+ TV to overhaul their editorial policy...

Artist depicts life in one of Europe’s largest refugee camps(Mashable.com) The first impression of the “Jungle” — the refugee and migrant camp in northern France that is home to some 6,000 people — is of rubbish. Huge piles of rubbish, everywhere. Food waste, torn sleeping bags, children’s toys, Christmas trees, you name it, it’s probably lying abandoned somewhere in the camp. Amongst it all, people...

Students at the Shashemene School for the Blind in Ethiopia sing and pray together after breakfast. The school is giving blind and partially sighted students lessons in faith, hope and independence. Learn more in The Future at Their Fingertips, in the Winter 2015 edition of ONE.(photo: Petterik Wiggers)

Kurds leave their houses with their belongings after new curfews were imposed in the Sur district of Diyarbakir on 27 January 2016. A military strike in the region this week damaged a Syrian Orthodox church dedicated to the Virgin Mary. (photo: Ilyas Akengin/AFP/Getty Images)

Church hit during military offensive in Turkey(Fides) A Syrian Orthodox church in Diyarbakir, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, was damaged during the Turkish military offensive against the positions of the Kurdish Workers’ Party. The damage was caused by the bombing carried out by the Turkish army. This was reported by Father Yusuf Akbulut, the pastor of the church, who continues to send alarming messages from his home, where he barricaded himself with the family while fighting continues in the area...

Coca Cola to open factory in Gaza(Times of Israel) Coca Cola is to open a factory in the Gaza Strip within weeks, which will eventually provide more than 1,000 jobs in what is one of the world’s worst-hit unemployment hot spots...

Hidden child labor in refugee camps(The Guardian) There are no figures on the informal Syrian labor force in Turkey but there are almost 2.3 million registered Syrian refugees living in the country, according to the U.N., with about 9 percent of them in refugee camps. The rest have to provide for themselves with no financial support from the state. An expert from the Centre for Middle Eastern Strategic Studies has suggested around 250,000 Syrian refugees are working illegally in the country, with a recent Human Rights Watch report claiming child labor is “rampant.” Many reports of illegal working come from the garment sector, the country’s second largest industry.

Hindu girl wins essay contest for writing about Christian unity(Catholic Register) Sometimes, it takes an outsider to speak the truth about our faith. Sharanya Tiwari is a Grade 11 Catholic high school student of Hindu faith. Out of all the entries, it was her essay on Christians united in “their rich faith in Christ” that set her apart from the others in the annual Friars’ Student Writing Award held in conjunction with the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. The annual contest is co sponsored by the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement-Graymoor and The Catholic Register...